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Friday, March 14, 2014

TV Recap: Once Upon a Time in Wonderland 1-10 - Dirty Little Secrets

Well, that went about as well as expected. Seriously, never break up. Have these people never watched a horror
movie? Plus we’re back to fighting
against overwhelming almost invincible odds.
How are they going to resolve everything in just 3 episodes?

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s look at what happened before we worry
about the future.

We did have a flashback last night, so let’s start
there. It’s set 100 years in the past
and shows us just how Cyrus and his brothers became genies.

It seems that the pre-genie Cyrus wasn’t that nice a
guy. When we meet him, he’s cheating at
cards. The guy he beats isn’t too happy
about it, and when Cyrus and his brothers return home, they learn he’s just set
it on fire with their mother trapped inside.

Mom survives, but is badly burned and near death. The only thing that might cure her is water
from the Well of Wonders, so the three brothers set off. When they arrive and start to take the water,
the guardian of the water shows up. She
tells them not to mess with the fates, and it is fated that their mother will
die. Cyrus doesn’t think it is right for
his mother to die for something he did, so he takes the water anyway and
convinces his brothers to do the same.

The water saves their mother, but via some spilled water,
the guardian finds them and curses them – turning the three brothers into three
genies. They are then scattered around
for others to find and use them, teaching them about how selfish and greedy
people can truly be.

Funny how this bit of backstory comes into play in modern
day Wonderland, isn’t it? (Okay, not
really. It’s what they do so well with
the franchise.)

We start with our four heroes at Alice and Cyrus’ hideout
debating what to do next in their quest to free his brothers. Eventually, it’s decided that they will split
up. Alice and Cyrus will go to find the
well and beg for a lifting of the curse while Red Queen and Knave will try to
rally the residence of Wonderland to fight Jafar. And yes, I was hesitant last week, but I do
think that Queen has truly changed.

Cyrus is surprised to learn that there is a Well of
Wonders in Wonderland. In fact, there is
one in every world. Is that the well
outside of Storybrooke?

Alice and Cyrus make it to where the well should be only
to find two doors. They must choose one
to enter through. The guard between them
says that one leads to the well and one leads to destruction. Alice is finally able to figure out the guard
will answer yes or no questions. She
also figures out that he always lies.
Once she figures that out, she is able to work out the correct door to
enter, but Cyrus insists he go on alone.
Alice sneaks in, however, and hears the exchange.

Cyrus confronts the keeper of the water, explaining that
he has learned his lesson and begging her to lift the curse on his
brothers. But she explains that to lift
the curse, all the water taken must be restored. Cyrus is surprised that this is even possible
since his mother drank it. But his
mother lives, even 100 years after Cyrus and his brothers were cursed.

At this point, Alice reveals herself. Cyrus is upset that Alice heard, hoping to
keep this part of his past a secret. But
Alice tells her own secret – she was going to try to forget him and all their
time together before Rabbit and Knave showed up to rescue her. She also says they can’t look forward to a
future together until they move on from the past. And so the two of them decide they need to
head to Agrabah to find Cyrus’s mother.

Meanwhile, Queen and Knave set out for Rabbit’s house to
get his help. They are going to try to
raise an army to fight against Jafar and want him to spread the word. However, Rabbit tells them the bad news – Jafar
has freed the Jabberwocky.

And thanks to the Jabberwocky, Jafar has learned that
Queen has the bottle. (Really, did we
need to see so many shots of those eyes?
Gross!) While Queen and Knave are
trying to find Alice and Cyrus to warn them when they are captured by
Jabberwocky. While Queen holds out for a
while, the Jabberwocky is able to prey on her fears and weaken her to the point
where she wastes her three wishes.

As the episode ends, the loyal Tweedle comes and finds
Queen in a cell. He offers to free her,
but she refuses, instead sending him off to warn the residence and try to form
a resistance.

Meanwhile, Jafar has his three genies finally. He’s just ready to start combining their
power as the episode ends.

As I said, three episodes left? This was kind of how I imagined they’d end
the next to last episode. And this show
has definitely proved it is darker than the original. Not only the villains but some of the
imagery. Yikes, I could have done
without those eyeballs.

The Red Queen really does seem to have changed
sides. Not that she is doing anyone any
good right now in that cell. Hopefully,
she can figure out a way to help in the end.

From the previews, it looks like Alice and Cyrus will be
heading to Storybrooke next week. I
can’t wait to find out why and who they might run into while there. Meanwhile, I have a feeling that things are
going to get much darker before they get better. Plus next week we'll get Cora, I'm assuming in a flashback. Can't wait to see that.

What did you think?
Any thoughts on how this final battle will take another three episodes?

2 comments:

Yes, a much darker episode. That water lady was downright creepy. This episode was enough to give kids nightmares!Interesting who the Mother turned out to be! So I'm wondering if the water gave her the power of magic. And how on earth are you going to get water back from someone who drank it and had it poured on them! More creepiness coming up I'm sure on that one!Red Queen does appear to have reformed and rather quickly too, but then with the show ending I guess they had to speed that up.I wonder if any of these characters will cross over into Storybrooke once this show ends. They have made a way for them to do something like that with the mention of what they need being in Storybrooke. I wouldn't mind seeing White Rabbit but as John Lithgow. I've always liked him.I will be out of town beginning Sunday afternoon and not back until Friday afternoon so I will be out of the loop for a little while on OUAT, Castle and this show.

It will be interesting to see how Cyrus can return the water. Maybe through Jafar's staff into the well? That's all I can think of.

Actually, I'm wondering if how much of what we've seen of the Red Queen's actions could be taken in a different light. She obviously was a reluctant ally of Jafar early on. I've kind of thought that she might have been playing her part in all this in order to get Knave back here so they could reunite. I could be wrong, but it might explain the sudden to us change.

It wouldn't surprise me if some of these characters showed up on the mother show in the future. Probably not this season but maybe next year.

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